


Where All The Stars Align

by rosesmallow



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: (Mostly just references to TROS), Arguing, F/M, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Light Angst, Love Confessions, Minor Kylo Ren/Rey, Post-Canon, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:28:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28249911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosesmallow/pseuds/rosesmallow
Summary: Poe and Rey get into an argument over each other's recklessness and realize that they might have feelings for each other.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Rey
Comments: 13
Kudos: 65





	Where All The Stars Align

**Author's Note:**

  * For [immolationfox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/immolationfox/gifts).



> I am furthering my damerey agenda here lads! not many warnings I can think of, just that these two impulsive kids are impulsive kids. based on the tumblr prompt "i think i'm in love with you and that scares the crap out of me"

“He did  **_what?_ ** ” Rey exclaimed, coming up behind Rose on the comms. The former mechanic turned high-ranking officer winced, and repeated what she’d already confirmed: Poe had engaged the enemy, alone, in a single beat-up fighter that  _ might _ make it back to Ajan Kloss. If he was lucky.

_ “Black Leader to Resistance, do you copy?” _ Poe’s voice came out tinny and distorted through the comms. Before Rose could get a chance to respond, Rey had jammed a headset on and was barking out, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Dameron?”

There was a definite pause before Poe replied and he almost sounded sheepish to Rose’s ears.  _ “Um, successfully snuffing out a group of TIEs that was on my ass.” _

“They were only  _ on _ your ass because you decided to  _ show _ it.” Rey seethed. Rose looked around the room to find Kaydel impressively staring down a bit of a wall as opposed to watching Rey and Poe’s showdown. They argued a lot when they weren’t teasing each other or being impressed and in awe of each other’s talent, and no one in the Resistance very much cared to be around them when they went at it.

But something had definitely changed between them since Exegol. Maybe not everyone had noticed it, too busy dealing with the fallout of their victory and piecing back the galaxy bit by bit, but people closest to them had. Beaumont and Kaydel were already betting on when they’d get together (which Rose did not endorse morally but had a pretty big stake in financially), and Finn was growing more and more exasperated by the tension that had bloomed between Poe and Rey.

_ “It was an in-the-moment decision,”  _ Poe replied coolly.  _ “They were prepping artillery, who knows who they could’ve shot down -” _

Wrong thing to say.

“Oh, I don’t know! Maybe you?” Rey snapped sardonically, then slammed the headset down and stalked out of the room. Rose let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

_ “Rey? Rey?”  _ Poe sighed.  _ “She’s gone isn’t she.” _

“Afraid so,” Rose confirmed, scooching her chair closer to the control panel. “You’re gonna be in a lot of trouble when you make it back.” 

Poe sighed. “ _ When aren’t I? I’m making the jump to lightspeed now.”  _

Before Rose could reply, the line went dead. She looked over at Kaydel who was smiling. At Rose’s quizzical expression, she shrugged. “I’ve never seen anyone push Poe’s buttons like this. It’s kind of fun.”

* * *

He wasn’t in as nearly much trouble as he thought he might be when he landed back on Ajan Kloss. The engines on the ship he acquired sputtered and groaned as the landing gear made contact with the soft earth, and Poe couldn’t get out of the cockpit fast enough. The canopy all but snapped off as he pushed it open and he tried not to let much of the concern that he’d felt since taking off in the thing show as he hopped down the ladder. First Order artillery? Easy. Ancient ship that probably hadn’t flown since the Clone Wars? Less so.

Finn was waiting for him, hand on his belt as he leaned up against a nearby tree. “I heard you had an interesting day, General.”

Poe smiled and clapped Finn on the shoulder, who brought him in for a quick hug. “When do I have uninteresting days, General?” Poe asked and Finn shook his head.

“Not nearly enough. Were you able to gather the intel like we wanted?” Finn tried not to look nearly as anxious as he felt, but Poe was good at reading him. He pulled a flash drive out of one of the pockets on his flight suit. 

“The remaining locations of current training grounds for the First Order, as promised.” Poe placed it into Finn’s palm, who stared at it like it was the key to everything - and maybe it was. 

After a moment, Finn gathered him and closed his fist around the drive. “Jannah and I’ve been waiting a while for this. Thank you, Poe.” 

“Hey, what’s a little bit of danger for a friend?” Poe’s smile sobered as he remembered Rose’s warning and he shoved his hands into his pockets anxiously. “Any chance you’ve, uh, seen -”

“Rey took off to the training grounds in a huff about two hours ago,” Finn answered like he knew Poe was going to ask that. “Rose told me about the argument.”

“It wasn’t -” Poe started to argue but immediately conceded when Finn gave him a look. Poe groaned and scrubbed his face. “I can’t ever seem to get things right with Rey. Either she runs headfirst into danger and  _ I  _ get pissed, or I do, and then  _ she _ gets pissed.”

Finn snorted as he shoved himself off the bark of the tree. “You almost sound confused why the two of you are like this.”

Poe shared a few smiles with other Resistance officers as they made their way to the council area to meet up with Rose. “I  _ am _ confused. Everyone  _ but _ me seems to have a clue about what’s going on between Rey and me.”

Finn came up short, turned around to face Poe. “C’mon Dameron. You’re an incredible strategist and you’re great at reading people. You’re telling me you really have no idea what’s going on here?”

Poe spread his arms at his sides. “Completely and totally in the dark.” Finn looked skyward for a second and Poe could have sworn he heard Finn mutter something about a bet. Before he could ask, Finn clapped him on the shoulder.

“Just think about you and Rey before you go see her. I mean...really think about it.” With that, Finn took off to tell Rose the good news. Poe watched as Finn lifted her up easily into a spinny hug, and as Rose captured Finn’s lips with hers. Something inside him twisted like a knife, and Poe averted his eyes. The ring around his neck seemed to hang heavier today.

* * *

_ Just think about you and Rey before you go see her. _

That was officially Poe’s problem as he leaned into his X-Wing cockpit, double and triple-checking system diagnostics just for something to do - he couldn’t  _ stop  _ thinking about him and Rey. If he was a superstitious man (which he was, vaguely) he’d almost say their stories were intertwined. Yet destiny intervened constantly, their paths running parallel lines until finally - finally - they’d met properly on Crait.

Despite the day he’d had, filled with terror at the prospect of losing more people he loved and the following guilt from his actions, talking with Rey on the Falcon had been enough to bring a smile to his face. They’d drank together, cheered to being torture buddies, and Rey constantly challenged him, kept him on his toes.

They worked like a well-oiled machine, too. Poe knew everything would be alright when he, Rey, and Finn went into battle together. Okay, maybe he wasn’t always  _ that  _ confident but he knew he could count on them to watch his six. She teased him mercilessly and he couldn’t help but care for her in little ways where he could - offering to fly the Falcon if she looked tired, subtly sliding more of his own lunch onto her plate when she was distracted because he could still see the wonder and hunger in her eyes a year after being off Jakku with access to proper nutrition. 

They bickered a lot. She never ceased to amaze him.

Then Exegol happened.

Poe swung his legs over the edge of his cockpit and looked up at the green canopy above him. The sky was growing purple with dusk: he’d been out here longer than he thought. Poe hopped down, grabbed a rag to wipe his hands clean, and tried not to think too much about Exegol.

It didn’t work.

He could still remember sitting in this same X-Wing, the high of their triumph against the Final Order still blazing through his veins - they’d  _ won _ . It hadn’t been for nothing, peace and democracy would be restored to the galaxy at large. 

Then Finn’s voice had come across the comms, full of emotion, as he uttered the words Poe would never forget, not even if he tried: “Poe, she’s gone -  _ Rey _ -” 

He’d almost crashed his X-Wing then, before Artoo yelled a proximity alert to him and he leveled the ship. Rey,  _ gone.  _ He couldn’t wrap his head around it, not so soon after losing Snap. He wasn’t ready to add Rey to the horribly lengthy list of people he’d lost already to this war.

Then, somehow, she was alive again. And when they reunited on Ajan Kloss after the fight, Poe couldn’t hold onto enough of her. 

With a start, Poe realized that he couldn’t bear to lose her, and it was in a much different way than he feared losing anyone else in the Resistance.

To the canopy of trees above him, Poe whispered eloquently, “Shit.”

* * *

Not a short while ago, the training course was a way for Rey to distract herself from the growing visions of her parent’s death and her connection to Ren. She’d thrown herself furiously into training, determined to be the best Jedi she could be for the Resistance, for her friends. 

She’d failed them enough already in her mind, in her struggle with her spiritual connection with the Force, and the last thing she wanted was to disappoint her newfound family, lest they toss her aside like she so long feared her own biological parents had, the way Ren had when she refused his hand in the throne room. Rey was used to being left behind, even if it was done with good intentions.

Now, the course was a good distraction from her growing anxiety about Poe’s wellbeing and her frustration at his insistence on throwing his life on the line any chance he got. Kaydel had talked to her a little before, filling her in on some of the escapades Poe led before they met that he hadn’t yet told her about: prison breaks, getting stabbed in the hand, mutinies.

She admired Poe’s boldness, his instinct to do the right thing and do what he felt was best with what he knew. Some people claimed his actions bordered on arrogance or pride, but Rey never sensed too much of it from him - it seemed more like a front than anything to her. If he could focus on the wins, he could hold off the grief a little longer at who didn’t come home.

And who was Rey to comment on an instinct to play hero at every chance they could get? She did exactly the same, was just as reckless and impulsive as Poe was. Hell, had she not knocked the legendary Luke Skywalker on his ass without seeing the whole picture?

Yet when Poe did anything remotely reckless, it made her furious. Some days, when he talked about old adventures, it came across as tired exasperation mixed with relief he was still sitting here to talk to her. But on missions like these, anger wrapped around her heart with a vice-like grip and she took it out on him.

But it wasn’t anger, she knew. It was fear.

_ It is the destiny of the Jedi to confront your fear. _

Rey waved off the memory and hauled her legs up to her chest. She was sitting on the edge of a precipice, staring up at the sky without really seeing it fade into a beautiful shade of purple.

If she was being honest with herself, the truth behind her feelings danced on the tip of her tongue every day. Even now, the answer was so simple and so close to her grasp that if she reached out, she could admit it. But if she admitted it, that meant...well, it meant a lot of things.

Not that it was a strong focus of hers, but Rey’s love life hadn’t exactly been the greatest so far. She’d developed feelings for Ben, but he’d stubbornly refused the Light until it was too late. They’d shared a kiss and then he’d died in her arms, having given up his life force for her so she would live. You know, the kind of thing that would turn most away from any budding feelings they were experiencing.

Try as she might, though, Rey couldn’t just run from whatever it was that had grown between her and Poe. She wasn’t even sure when  _ it _ had happened: after Exegol, she’d noticed him watching her from across the room more and more often like he was trying to remind himself she was still there, and where there was once fond amusement and exasperation in his eyes when they spoke, there was something new in his deep brown eyes. Something soft that made her heart seize any time she noticed it.

She’d always felt some kind of affection toward him even when she gave him shit, but it had grown into something else recently without her really realizing it. One day he was Poe, and then the next a switch had been flipped in her head and he was  _ Poe.  _

Rey pressed her head into her arms which rested on her kneecaps and groaned loudly.

That idiot flyboy had wormed his way into her heart and she hated him for it.

* * *

Poe made his way cautiously through the training course, keeping a tight hold on the bag he’d prepped before leaving to find Rey. It was filled with some of her favorite foods and fruits - considering the late hour he wasn’t sure if she’d eaten yet, and honestly if there was any way he might get back in her good graces it was with food.

He found her rocking slightly to and fro at the edge of a precipice. He tried not to let the location startle him and failed. Just as he started to announce his presence, Rey asked, “What do you want?”

Poe almost asked her how she knew he was there, but then remembered who he was talking to. There was no sneaking up on a Jedi. “I wanted to talk about earlier, and I uh -” he raised the bag up - “I brought food.”

Rey’s eyes darted between him and the bag of food for a moment, regarding him. She relented and patted the space next to her. Poe let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and took his place beside her. Ajan Kloss wasn’t a cool planet by any means, but at night the temperature dropped enough to warrant the use of jackets - of which only one of them had. 

As Rey snuck a peek into the bag (Poe’s heart seized in his chest as her hazel eyes sparkled when she recognized her favorite fruits inside), Poe shucked off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. She turned to him in surprise and he gave an easy shrug. “I’ve got sleeves, you don’t.”

They sat in silence for a while, except for the noises of Rey eating the dinner Poe brought her. Every few minutes she’d try to offer something to him but he would decline. After her fourth attempt was rejected, Rey hurled a fruit at his head. 

Poe jerked as the fruit smacked against the side of his head and stared at her. “What was  _ that _ for?”

“You can’t just bring me food and not eat,” Rey replied stiffly, keeping her eyes trained ahead of her. “It’s not fair.”

Poe opened his mouth to argue that he’d grabbed something to eat before he came to find her, but he didn’t really feel like starting another fight between them, so he accepted the fruit turned weapon. 

After he finished up, he dried his sticky fingers on his trousers and turned to Rey. “You know I didn’t just come up here to bribe you with food.”

“No?”

“Well, I  _ did _ come up here to bribe you with food.” Poe amended, “But I also wanted to talk to you.”

“Post bribery.”

“Yes, post bribery,” Poe said with a laugh and was delighted when he found the smallest of smiles on Rey’s face. “The fight we had this afternoon…” he exhaled, dragging a hand through his curls in agitation. “I didn’t like it.”

After a moment of consideration, Rey nodded. “I think I can agree.” She exhaled softly and turned to face him. “I’m sorry that I snapped at you, I just -” she opened her mouth, stammering silently, then closed it and averted her gaze. 

He inched closer to her, and wet his lips. He hated being left in the dark on things, most of all when it came to his friends. There were things Rey and Finn experienced he would never understand, could never dream of understanding — he wasn’t Leia in that regard. And it killed him.

But it would never stop him from at least trying.

“Hey,” he breathed softly, nudging her on the arm. “You can talk to me.”

“Not about this,” Rey protested with a shake of her head. She clambered up to her feet. Poe looked up at her for a beat, then followed her. He took a step closer to her.

“Try me,” he challenged, voice barely above a whisper. He just wanted to  _ understand  _ her, understand whatever the hell this was between them. 

He almost swore her hazel eyes flickered down to his lips, but that must’ve been a trick of the moonlight, right? “Poe…” her tone was half warning, half something else.

Poe closed his eyes and started to back away. “If you really don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. I just - I want you to know that I’m sorry for scaring you. Or, at least I think I scared you.”

Rey caught his wrist easily and his eyes snapped open. Before he could register what was happening, she was moving into his orbit on her tiptoes. Her lips brushed against his. Poe couldn’t move, couldn’t return the kiss, too shocked to do anything but stand there flailing his hands. 

After a second, Rey darted back, panic blazing in her hazel eyes but she made no attempt to run as she whispered, “I think I’m in love with you and that scares the kriff out of me.”

All the air in his lungs disappeared as her confession left him floored. Poe stared jaw-slacked and wide-eyed at her as Rey pulled into herself. “I don’t like it when you put yourself into danger, because I’ve already lost so many people I care about and -” she swallowed. “I don’t think I could lose you.” Rey looked up at him, eyes shining with fear and a little bit of hope. “You don’t have to say anything, even if you feel the same - I don’t know if you do - I understand if you don’t want...me.”

That shook Poe out of his stupor. “What? Sweetheart, why wouldn’t I want you?”

Rey avoided his gaze once more. “There’s a lot you and Finn don’t know, about my parents. Where I come from. If you did -” she shook her head. “I don’t know if it would matter or not but I don’t want to think about you looking at me differently.”

Poe shook his head, moving close to her, slowly, giving Rey an out if she wanted. When she didn’t knock him flat on his ass, he wrapped an arm around her waist, his palm spanning her lower back as he closed the distance between them. “Rey, there’s nothing in this galaxy that could make me look at you differently from how I do now.”

“Even if I was a -”

“Even if you were,” Poe interrupted. He had suspicions thanks to some things D-0 said before Exegol, but he could tell Rey wasn’t ready for this conversation. “You’re still Rey.”

She swallowed. “And how do you look at me now?”

Poe grinned. “Like a lovesick fool, probably.” His smile sobered and his eyes darkened. “Can I kiss you?”

Rey nodded once, almost imperceptibly, and Poe cupped her face and met her mouth with his. Rey hummed against his lips, as he tugged her closer to him. Her hand landed over his heart as she stood up on her tiptoes to deepen the kiss.

When they parted for air, Poe said, “Can I let you in on my own little secret?” When Rey nodded, he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I think  _ I’m _ in love with you and that scares the hell out of me.”


End file.
